November 2017 Briefing - Pharmacy

Here are what the editors at HealthDay consider to be the most important developments in Pharmacy for November 2017. This roundup includes the latest research news from journal articles, as well as the FDA approvals and regulatory changes that are the most likely to affect clinical practice.

Physicians Report High Rate of Uncontrolled Atopic Dermatitis

THURSDAY, Nov. 30, 2017 (HealthDay News) -- Physicians rate a high proportion of patients with atopic dermatitis (AD) as having inadequate disease control, according to a study published online Nov. 13 in the Journal of Dermatology.

THURSDAY, Nov. 30, 2017 (HealthDay News) -- Among patients with diabetes, severe hypoglycemia is associated with high absolute risk of cardiovascular events and mortality, according to a study published online Nov. 10 in Diabetes Care.

THURSDAY, Nov. 30, 2017 (HealthDay News) -- The incidence of HIV infection declined significantly in Uganda between 1999 and 2016, according to a study published in the Nov. 30 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

THURSDAY, Nov. 30, 2017 (HealthDay News) -- Fremanezumab is effective for the prevention of chronic migraine, and erenumab is beneficial for treatment of episodic migraine, according to two studies published in the Nov. 30 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

THURSDAY, Nov. 30, 2017 (HealthDay News) -- Prenatal vitamin D supplementation during pregnancy may have some benefits, although the evidence is low quality, according to research published online Nov. 29 in The BMJ.

THURSDAY, Nov. 30, 2017 (HealthDay News) -- Urban American Indians and Alaskan Natives (AIAN) with cancer have a significantly higher comorbidity burden, and have higher mortality for some cancers, according to a study published online Nov. 29 in Cancer Research.

THURSDAY, Nov. 30, 2017 (HealthDay News) -- Women at both extremes of the weight spectrum have low mean serum allopregnanolone, which has been linked to increased depression and anxiety severity, according to a study published online Nov. 1 in Neuropsychopharmacology.

THURSDAY, Nov. 30, 2017 (HealthDay News) -- The combination of environmental enrichment (EE) and magnesium-L-threonate (MgT) is more effective than either treatment alone for improving cognition and spatial memory in a mouse model of Alzheimer's disease (AD), according to a study published online Nov. 10 in CNS Neuroscience & Therapeutics.

WEDNESDAY, Nov. 29, 2017 (HealthDay News) -- Products marketed as selective androgen receptor modulators and sold via the internet frequently contain unapproved drugs and substances, and the amount of active compound often does not match that listed on the label, according to a study published in the Nov. 28 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

WEDNESDAY, Nov. 29, 2017 (HealthDay News) -- Older adults report feeling confident that they know how to avoid drug interactions despite only 35 percent having spoken to someone about it in the past year, according to findings from the National Poll on Healthy Aging, published online Nov. 29.

TUESDAY, Nov. 28, 2017 (HealthDay News) -- HIV is being diagnosed sooner after infection than previously reported, according to a Nov. 28 press release issued by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

TUESDAY, Nov. 28, 2017 (HealthDay News) -- For infants with bronchiolitis, the use of evidence-based supportive therapies (EBSTs) varies by hospital site, according to a study published online Nov. 28 in Pediatrics.

TUESDAY, Nov. 28, 2017 (HealthDay News) -- For reversal of opioid overdose, higher-concentration intranasal naloxone has similar efficacy to that of intramuscular naloxone administered at the same dose, according to a review published online Nov. 27 in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

MONDAY, Nov. 27, 2017 (HealthDay News) -- Single measles cases trigger coordinated public health action that is associated with considerable costs, according to research published in the Nov. 24 issue of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

MONDAY, Nov. 27, 2017 (HealthDay News) -- For older adults, the Anticholinergic Cognitive Burden Scale (ACB) shows good dose-response relationships between anticholinergic burden and adverse outcomes, according to a study published in the November/December issue of the Annals of Family Medicine.

MONDAY, Nov. 27, 2017 (HealthDay News) -- Seemingly benign, recurring patterns of joking around a single theme (joke cycles) can contribute to humorizing and legitimizing sexual misconduct, according to an essay published online Nov. 12 in Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies.

MONDAY, Nov. 27, 2017 (HealthDay News) -- New solutions are needed to address burnout among health care team members, yet, in a catch-22 situation for health industry leaders, change fatigue contributes to burnout, according to a Vocera Communications report entitled In Pursuit of Resilience, Well-Being, and Joy in Healthcare.

MONDAY, Nov. 27, 2017 (HealthDay News) -- The compound cinnamaldehyde (CA), found in cinnamon, activates fat cells to start burning energy in both mice and humans, according to a study published in the December issue of Metabolism.

WEDNESDAY, Nov. 22, 2017 (HealthDay News) -- Implementation of a guideline can reduce nonindicated use of proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) and histamine-2 receptor antagonists (H2RAs) among newborns, according to a study published online Nov. 21 in Pediatrics.

WEDNESDAY, Nov. 22, 2017 (HealthDay News) -- Immediate access to opioid agonist treatment (OAT) for patients presenting with opioid use disorder may provide greater health benefits at less cost than observed standard of care, according to a study published online Nov. 21 in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

WEDNESDAY, Nov. 22, 2017 (HealthDay News) -- Individuals born between 1947 and 1964 have a significantly increased risk of prescription opioid overdose death and heroin overdose death, and those born from 1979 to 1992 also have an increased risk of heroin overdose death, according to a study published online Nov. 21 in the American Journal of Public Health.

TUESDAY, Nov. 21, 2017 (HealthDay News) -- Oral insulin does not delay onset of type 1 diabetes in autoantibody-positive relatives of patients with type 1 diabetes, according to a study published in the Nov. 21 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

TUESDAY, Nov. 21, 2017 (HealthDay News) -- In patients with birch pollen allergy, intranasal administration of omalizumab does not result in relevant change of allergen-specific and total immunoglobulin E (IgE) levels, according to a pilot study published online Oct. 30 in Allergy.

TUESDAY, Nov. 21, 2017 (HealthDay News) -- Use of oxybenzone (Benzophenone-3) in sunscreen and personal care products should be minimized due to its dermatological and environmental toxicity, according to a review published online Oct. 31 in the Journal of Cosmetic Dermatology.

TUESDAY, Nov. 21, 2017 (HealthDay News) -- An increased β-blocker dose is associated with a greater prognostic advantage in patients with chronic heart failure (CHF) and diabetes than in those with CHF but no diabetes, according to a study published online Oct. 25 in Diabetes Care.

TUESDAY, Nov. 21, 2017 (HealthDay News) -- For patients with atrial fibrillation (AF), non-vitamin K antagonist oral anticoagulants (NOACs) are associated with lower risks of adverse renal outcomes than warfarin, according to a study published in the Nov. 28 issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

MONDAY, Nov. 20, 2017 (HealthDay News) -- For male and female high school students, nonmedical use of prescription drugs (NMUPD) is associated with experiences of dating violence victimization (DVV), according to a study published online Nov. 20 in Pediatrics.

MONDAY, Nov. 20, 2017 (HealthDay News) -- Short message service (SMS) reminders are a moderately effective way to increase the rate of influenza vaccination among high-risk patients, according to a study published in the November/December issue of the Annals of Family Medicine.

FRIDAY, Nov. 17, 2017 (HealthDay News) -- More than 40 percent of health care personnel (HCP) with influenza-like illness (ILI) work while ill, according to a study published in the November issue of the American Journal of Infection Control.

FRIDAY, Nov. 17, 2017 (HealthDay News) -- A simple, easy-to-use checklist, the Guideline Trustworthiness, Relevance, and Utility Scoring Tool (G-TRUST), can identify useful clinical practice guidelines, according to a study published in the September/October issue of the Annals of Family Medicine.

FRIDAY, Nov. 17, 2017 (HealthDay News) -- Intensive blood pressure (BP) control may provide no benefit and may even be harmful for patients with moderate-to-advanced chronic kidney disease, according to a study published online Oct. 16 in the Journal of Internal Medicine.

FRIDAY, Nov. 17, 2017 (HealthDay News) -- Among patients with type 2 diabetes initiating antidiabetes drugs (ADDs), first-line use of metformin has increased since 2005, while sulfonylureas have remained the most popular second-line agent, according to a study published online Nov. 6 in Diabetes Care.

FRIDAY, Nov. 17, 2017 (HealthDay News) -- Overdosing of erlotinib may be associated with rapid onset of conjunctivitis, according to a case report published online Oct. 25 in the Journal of Clinical Pharmacy and Therapeutics.

FRIDAY, Nov. 17, 2017 (HealthDay News) -- Hemlibra (emicizumab-kxwh) has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to prevent or reduce the frequency of bleeding episodes among hemophilia A patients with Factor VIII inhibitors.

THURSDAY, Nov. 16, 2017 (HealthDay News) -- In patients with progressive glioblastoma, treatment with lomustine plus bevacizumab does not confer a survival advantage over treatment with lomustine alone, according to a study published online Nov. 15 in the New England Journal of Medicine.

THURSDAY, Nov. 16, 2017 (HealthDay News) -- The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) investigation into the safety of codeine use by children, which culminated in a black box warning in February 2013, led to substantially decreased codeine prescribing to children after tonsillectomy and/or adenoidectomy, according to a study published online Nov. 16 in Pediatrics.

THURSDAY, Nov. 16, 2017 (HealthDay News) -- For young children, implementation of a peer review prior authorization (PA) policy can reduce the use of atypical antipsychotic (AAP) medications, according to a research letter published online Nov. 15 in JAMA Psychiatry.

THURSDAY, Nov. 16, 2017 (HealthDay News) -- The incidence of juvenile-onset recurrent respiratory papillomatosis (JORRP) in Australia decreased from 2012 to 2016 after implementation of a quadrivalent human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination program for females aged 12 to 26 years in 2007-2009, according to a study published online Nov. 9 in The Journal of Infectious Diseases.

WEDNESDAY, Nov. 15, 2017 (HealthDay News) -- Insurance coverage differences account for about half of the disparity in survival rates between black and white patients aged 18 to 64 years with colorectal cancer (CRC), according to a study published online Nov. 14 in Gastroenterology.

WEDNESDAY, Nov. 15, 2017 (HealthDay News) -- Despite increases in HbA1c testing and awareness, glycemic control seems to have plateaued among patients with diabetes between 2007 and 2014, according to a research letter published online Nov. 14 in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

WEDNESDAY, Nov. 15, 2017 (HealthDay News) -- A 250-μg peanut patch produces a significant treatment response in peanut-allergic patients treated for a year, according to a study published online Nov. 14 in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

WEDNESDAY, Nov. 15, 2017 (HealthDay News) -- Although initiation of extended-release naltrexone (XR-NTX) may be more difficult, XR-NTX and sublingual buprenorphine-naloxone (BUP-NX) are equally safe and effective once initiated for opioid relapse prevention, according to a study published online Nov. 14 in The Lancet.

WEDNESDAY, Nov. 15, 2017 (HealthDay News) -- Psychostimulant use during pregnancy is associated with a small increased relative risk of preeclampsia and preterm birth, according to a study published online Nov. 7 in Obstetrics & Gynecology.

TUESDAY, Nov. 14, 2017 (HealthDay News) -- In clinical practice, patients starting dabigatran therapy do not have significantly different rates of ischemic stroke or extracranial hemorrhage than those starting warfarin therapy, though they have lower rates of intracranial bleeding, according to a study published online Nov. 13 in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

TUESDAY, Nov. 14, 2017 (HealthDay News) -- Inhaled corticosteroids are not associated with increased odds of fracture in the pediatric asthma population, according to a study published online Nov. 13 in JAMA Pediatrics.

MONDAY, Nov. 13, 2017 (HealthDay News) -- The adoption of state oral chemotherapy parity laws has improved financial protection for many patients, according to a study published online Nov. 9 in JAMA Oncology.

MONDAY, Nov. 13, 2017 (HealthDay News) -- For patients with acute stroke who were last well six to 24 hours earlier and who had a mismatch between the severity of the clinical deficit and the infarct volume, thrombectomy plus standard care is associated with better outcomes than standard care alone, according to a study published online Nov. 11 in the New England Journal of Medicine to coincide with the annual meeting of the Society of Vascular and Interventional Neurology, held Nov. 8 to 11 in Boston.

THURSDAY, Nov. 9, 2017 (HealthDay News) -- When adjuvant endocrine therapy for estrogen receptor-positive breast cancer is stopped after five years, recurrences occur at a steady rate into the future, according to a meta-analysis published online Nov. 8 in the New England Journal of Medicine.

THURSDAY, Nov. 9, 2017 (HealthDay News) -- Gynecologists prescribe about twice the amount of opioids than patients use after hysterectomy for benign, nonobstetric indications, according to a study published online Nov. 7 in Obstetrics & Gynecology.

THURSDAY, Nov. 9, 2017 (HealthDay News) -- Vaccination coverage has remained above 90 percent for many vaccinations among young children, and progress is being made toward immunization information systems (IISs) program goals, according to two studies published online Nov. 2 in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

WEDNESDAY, Nov. 8, 2017 (HealthDay News) -- For women with ovarian cancer who underwent both surgery and adjuvant chemotherapy, the average medical expenditures are about $100,000 in the first year after surgery, according to a study published online Nov. 7 in Obstetrics & Gynecology.

WEDNESDAY, Nov. 8, 2017 (HealthDay News) -- Differences in glycosylation between H3N2 egg-adapted vaccines and circulating strains probably reduced vaccine effectiveness during the 2016-2017 influenza season, according to a study published online Nov. 6 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

WEDNESDAY, Nov. 8, 2017 (HealthDay News) -- For patients with acute severe bleeding, any delay in treatment with tranexamic acid is associated with a reduction in the survival benefit, according to a meta-analysis published online Nov. 7 in The Lancet.

WEDNESDAY, Nov. 8, 2017 (HealthDay News) -- For patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), the risk of lymphoma is increased with use of thiopurine monotherapy, anti-tumor necrosis factor (TNF) monotherapy, and combination therapy, according to a study published online Nov. 7 in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

WEDNESDAY, Nov. 8, 2017 (HealthDay News) -- For patients presenting to the emergency department with acute extremity pain, the combination of ibuprofen and acetaminophen does not differ in terms of pain reduction from three different opioid and acetaminophen combination analgesics, according to a study published online Nov. 7 in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

WEDNESDAY, Nov. 8, 2017 (HealthDay News) -- There has been little change in the treatment recommendations for cough due to the common cold since publication of guidelines in 2006, according to a review published online Nov. 7 in Chest.

WEDNESDAY, Nov. 8, 2017 (HealthDay News) -- Factors including increases in health care service price and intensity are associated with increases in U.S. health care spending from 1996 to 2013, according to a study published online Nov. 7 in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

WEDNESDAY, Nov. 8, 2017 (HealthDay News) -- Zelboraf (vemurafenib) has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration as the first drug to treat certain adults patients with Erdheim-Chester disease (ECD).

TUESDAY, Nov. 7, 2017 (HealthDay News) -- Among cannabidiol (CBD) products sold online, there is a wide range of CBD concentrations, and many products are under- or overlabeled, according to a research letter published online Nov. 7 in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

TUESDAY, Nov. 7, 2017 (HealthDay News) -- For adults older than 50 years, warfarin use is associated with reduced incidence of cancer, according to a study published online Nov. 6 in JAMA Internal Medicine.

TUESDAY, Nov. 7, 2017 (HealthDay News) -- Lifestyle modification (LSM) and medications can reduce the incidence of diabetes in adults at risk, although the effects of medications are short-lived, according to a review published online Nov. 6 in JAMA Internal Medicine.

TUESDAY, Nov. 7, 2017 (HealthDay News) -- Sertraline treatment does not significantly improve depressive symptoms among patients with non-dialysis-dependent chronic kidney disease (CKD) and major depressive disorder (MDD), according to a study published online Nov. 3 in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

TUESDAY, Nov. 7, 2017 (HealthDay News) -- Most people complete treatment for latent tuberculosis (TB) without direct observation, according to a study published online Nov. 6 in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

MONDAY, Nov. 6, 2017 (HealthDay News) -- A novel method has been developed to enhance the prevalence estimates of diabetes and prediabetes, according to a study published online Nov. 2 in Preventing Chronic Diseases.

FRIDAY, Nov. 3, 2017 (HealthDay News) -- From 2005 to 2015 there was a decrease in the proportion of infants aged ≤60 days with a urinary tract infection (UTI) who received four or more days of intravenous (IV) antibiotics, according to a study published online Nov. 2 in Pediatrics.

THURSDAY, Nov. 2, 2017 (HealthDay News) -- The ability to purchase a product containing a class 3 topical steroid online, without physician authorization, highlights the dangers of prescription-strength medications being acquired as over-the-counter products, according to a research letter published online Nov. 1 in JAMA Dermatology.

THURSDAY, Nov. 2, 2017 (HealthDay News) -- For adolescents with type 1 diabetes and high levels of albumin excretion, neither angiotensin-converting-enzyme (ACE) inhibitors nor statins change the albumin-to-creatinine ratio over time, according to a study published online Nov. 1 in the New England Journal of Medicine.

THURSDAY, Nov. 2, 2017 (HealthDay News) -- Not all prescription drug users report receiving warnings about driving impairment, according to a study published online Nov. 1 in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs.

WEDNESDAY, Nov. 1, 2017 (HealthDay News) -- The American College of Cardiology, the American Heart Association, and the Heart Rhythm Society have released updated guidelines for the management of adults who have ventricular arrhythmias (VAs) or who are at risk for sudden cardiac death (SCD). The guidelines were published online Oct. 30 in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

WEDNESDAY, Nov. 1, 2017 (HealthDay News) -- Lenalidomide produces hematologic responses in myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS)/myeloproliferative neoplasm (MPN) with ring sideroblasts (RS) and thrombocytosis (MDS/MPN-RS-T), although these responses are often suboptimal, according to a research letter published online Oct. 25 in the American Journal of Hematology.

WEDNESDAY, Nov. 1, 2017 (HealthDay News) -- In older adults, medication use is significantly associated with xerostomia and salivary gland dysfunction, according to a review published online Oct. 26 in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.